This invention relates to communications in general and, more particularly, to a subscriber control system for communicating with subscriber terminals at remote locations via cable.
In the cable T.V. area, a customer buys separate services separately. For example, in one particular cable system there is available a basic cable service, a movie channel, an entertainment channel, and a sports channel. The subscriber pays for each separately. It is thus necessary that the cable service be able to control which of the services the customer receives. In the past, it has been the common practice to accomplish this in one of two ways. One way of doing this is to place at the subscriber multitap i.e., at a location outside the home from which a number of homes are fed, negative traps. These negative traps are filters which are put in place and which trap or filter out the channels to which the subscriber is not subscribing. This requires, each time a subscriber changes his subscription, that a serviceman be sent out to remove or insert the negative trap. The other manner of insuring that only those who subscribe receive a channel is through the use of scrambling. The channels for which one must pay extra are scrambled and the subscriber is provided with a descrambler. This, of course, increases the overall cost and requires additional equipment which must be maintained. Furthermore, in either of these instances, it is difficult to selectively supply to subscribers an individual event for which they pay separately (per view), for example a major prize fight or other sporting event, concert or the like.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system which permits addressing subscribers in a cable system to, in effect, enable and disable tiers of service which are paid for separately.